


what is and always will be my greatest creation... is you

by WinterSabbath



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Adopted Tony Stark, Arno Stark - Freeform, Established Relationship, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Hurt Tony Stark, M/M, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Time Travel, Tony Stark Gets a Hug, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric, and has a brother, forget about endgame in this fic ok, tony finds out he's adopted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 02:28:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19984546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinterSabbath/pseuds/WinterSabbath
Summary: Tony builds a time-travel device and finds out he’s adopted. Loki helps him through it.





	what is and always will be my greatest creation... is you

**Author's Note:**

> yes, earth-616 tony stark is adopted. this fic centers more around that rather than tony and loki's relationship.

“JARVIS, where is Anthony?” Loki asked. He looked throughout the whole compound and saw no sign of Anthony Stark anywhere. Not even in the workshop. He hadn’t gone out with the other Avengers either, Loki had asked them one by one.

“In 1970, sir.” 

Loki’s head shot up, “ _What?_ ”

\--- --- ---

Tony fiddled with the GPS wrapped around his palm while he waited for Howard and Maria Stark to give birth to him. Why he chose this period for testing his time-space GPS? No idea. He just wanted to see what Howard’s reaction to his birth looked like. Was he happy? Sad? Pissed?

A part of Tony wished he had brought Loki along so the god could cast some kind of glamour over them so Tony could be closer to the scene. Unfortunately, Tony had only created one GPS and he was too excited to try it out.

Howard, looking stone-faced as usual, stepped out of the room with _Maria looking perfectly fine._ What the fuck? Why didn’t she look like she just gave birth? “JARVIS, what are they saying?”

There was a pause and Tony could suddenly hear his parents’ voices.

“—and we can keep him in the Maria Stark Foundation Hospice so that he doesn’t die,” Howard was saying. Tony frowned. He didn’t know he was about to die when he was a child.

“Howard, he may never come out if we put him there."

“The iron lung will keep Arno alive and that’s what’s important.” _Arno??? Who the fuck was Arno?_

“And what will we tell the press then? They’ll wonder where our son went,” Maria hissed but the look on her face gave away the fact that she knew Howard was right.

Howard glared at the floor for a few moments before looking up. “We’ll adopt another child then. Claim him as ours.”

Tony gaped at the both of them and it took a lot of self-control for him not to jump and curse at them and ask just _what the fuck_ were they talking about? Before he could do that, though, Howard and Maria disappeared into the room once again and Tony realized that whoever was in that room... it wasn’t him.

He clenched his teeth and pressed the button on his GPS to make him go back to his original timeline. Once he was back, he ran over to his computer, not giving himself time to break down or think about how _his entire existence might as well have been a lie_.

“JARVIS, you recorded that conversation, right?” Tony asked. He couldn’t find it in him to celebrate the success of his time-space GPS anymore.

The AI seemed to hesitate before responding, “Yes, sir, I did.”

“I need you to run a search on anything related to Arno Stark or the Maria Stark Foundation Hospice. Maybe if I have a birth certificate lying around, bring that up to."

“Anthony, you’re back,” Loki said behind him. Tony turned around, calming down a little bit (though he still had a long way to go).

“I am,” Tony said. He turned back to the screen.

“Are you alright? You look quite frantic,” Loki frowned, approaching him from behind and giving him a hug. That caused Tony to give a strained laugh, the disbelief evident in his voice. He snorted, leaning back against Loki.

“Alright? I’m doing great. I just found out I may or may not be adopted and I may or may not have been used as a replacement child,” Tony smiled sarcastically, “I’m doing fine.”

Loki was silent for a moment then he pressed a kiss to Tony’s head.

“Oh, Anthony...” he whispered. Fuck. Tony didn’t need pity right now. He needed _answers_ and then maybe a cuddle or two from Loki.

“I have cross-referenced through all databases, sir,” JARVIS spoke up, projecting a few tabs in front of Tony. Tony muttered his thanks before scanning through the files. There were a few articles regarding the foundation but nothing that helped. And then there was one file on Arno Stark.

“Howard, you son of a bitch,” Tony cursed under his breath, scanning the file, “ _Fuck._ Are you fucking _kidding me?_ ”

“My love, perhaps you should take a break first,” Loki murmured, reading the screen as well.

Tony could feel his own hand shaking and he wasn’t sure if it was from anger or because he wanted to cry. According to the file that JARVIS had pulled up _deep_ from SHIELD databases, Arno was being held in an iron lung in the foundation’s hospice. Whatever _that_ meant.

“JARVIS, call Fury,” Tony said.

“Calling Director Fury,” JARVIS responded.

There were several rings before Fury answered. He sounded tired, not that Tony cared much. “Stark.”

For the first time, Tony cringed at the name, “You and my dad were close, right? Mind telling me who Arno Stark is?”

There was silence on Fury’s end of the line and Tony was sure he was going to end the call. Then Fury sighed. “I have something to give you. I’ll meet you in your tower in twenty minutes."

“ _Twenty?"_

But the call dropped before Tony could rant about waiting twenty minutes.

“Anthony, perhaps we should go upstairs first. JARVIS said you have not eaten in a while,” Loki murmured, turning Tony’s chair around.

Tony frowned at him then sighed when Loki gave him a _look_. “Well, I guess I could have bite. I just need answers, Lokes.”

“And you will have them.”

“I was just a replacement,” Tony muttered, burying his face in his hands, “A fucking _replacement_. No wonder Howard only ever saw me as a pawn in this game of his. That’s all I was from day one.”

“Anthony—”

“They have a son out here in this world _right now_ and I never knew. Maybe Howard was just wishing it wasn’t me the entire time, huh? He saw me and always thought _I wish it wasn’t Tony with me right now_. Same with my mother! How could they not tell me? How could they not—,” Tony choked out, tears flowing out traitorously, “I was just a replacement. Did they even love me? No. Probably not. Why would replacement Tony be worthy of any love, right?”

Loki held him there. Tony didn’t need him to say anything. Loki being here for him... this was all that he could ask for. Loki clutched him tighter and whispered, “ _I_ love you, Anthony, and you _are_ worthy of such a love.”

Tony cried.

\--- --- --- 

As it turned out, all Fury wanted to give Tony was a tape recorder. Tony had to dig around to find a player and he set it up in the living room, sitting down on the couch with Loki wrapped around him. He needed all the affection he could get, he supposed.

“Your father told me to give it to you if you found out,” Fury told Tony. Why Howard didn’t want to just _tell_ Tony himself? Fury didn’t know the answer to that either.

“Son,” Howard began in the recording, catching Tony’s attention immediately.

“Dad,” he mumbled, asking himself if that was the right word he should even be using.

“There’s something... there are things I haven’t told you and...” Howard drank from the glass of alcohol in his hand, “This is going to be hard for you. I hope you’ll forgive me for doing it and for not telling you. I never had the guts to and I’m sorry. Your mom and I... we love you so much, don’t forget that, okay?”

Tony bit his lip, tugging the blanket over his chest. He didn’t know how much more of this he could listen to.

Howard continued. He talked about Arno, talked about how he created the iron lung to preserve Arno’s life and how something called the 451 offered to help but Howard and Maria had declined. Then he talked about how they then decided to adopt another boy instead to take Arno’s place in the public eye.

“Oh, god, Tony, this isn’t coming out right,” Howard said after he told Tony their plans for him, “This makes it sound like you were just a decoy. We loved you. We _always_ loved you.”

The recording ended and Tony had long since run out of tears.

“Loved me? They never even talked to me,” he grumbled, rubbing his eyes, “Let’s go to sleep, Lokes...”

“If you wish to talk—”

Tony shook his head, kissing him. “Tomorrow morning, okay? I want to sleep.”

“Very well, Anthony.”

The very next day, Tony searched for Arno Stark.

**Author's Note:**

> tony meeting arno is also canon in the comics. then maybe he goes home to loki and loki just reassures tony that he's still the same, nothing's changed and everything he's done for the world is worth something. he reassures tony that tony is worth everything and slowly, tony finds himself again and loki just supports him all the way like the good boyfriend he is.


End file.
